IN THE GARDEN: New film highlights Celia Thaxter's legendary garden

One of America's most celebrated 19th century writers also happened to be an avid gardener.

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Wicked Local

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Posted Jul. 26, 2014 at 8:00 AM
Updated Aug 5, 2014 at 10:05 AM

Posted Jul. 26, 2014 at 8:00 AM
Updated Aug 5, 2014 at 10:05 AM

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Recently I saw the new short documentary called “Celia Thaxter’s Island Garden” about the late 19th century poet Celia Thaxter (1835-1894) and her garden.

During the summer Celia lived on Appledore Island, off the coast of New Castle, N.H. Her family owned the hotel on the island and Celia worked there for many summers. That is also where she cultivated a small garden.

“I thought it was a good story because many people go out to see the garden,” said New Hampshire publisher and photographer Peter Randall, who produced the new film.

The film runs for about 30 minutes and captures the spirit of her garden, past and present.

In the garden she loved, Celia grew mainly annuals in order to fill vases to decorate the hotel during the summer. Her garden measured 50-feet-by-15-feet.

The hotel went down in a fire in 1914, but volunteers have preserved Celia’s garden. In the garden today you see the flowers in the same spot that Celia planted them. She left the details of her work in the garden in her book “An Island Garden,” probably her most famous book and still worth reading today.

Many of New England’s leading authors, musicians, and artists, like American Impressionist Childe Hassam who painted the cover of her book, visited the Appledore House and spent time with Celia. Hassam’s paintings often depict Celia with her treasured flowers.

The video uses photographs from the 19th century as well photographs that Randall, who first visited the island in 1974, took more recently. Last summer he spent three nights on Appledore to shoot video for the film. Several interviews with volunteer gardeners appear in the film as well.

Today the plants for the garden are started at the University of New Hampshire greenhouses in Durham. The most popular flower, and the one many people ask about, is the Scabiosa. The hop vine that Celia grew in her garden thrives in the same spot. Marigolds and Calendula were her favorite flowers, along with the blue Batchelor button.

Celia collected her seeds from friends who came to the hotel, but also purchased them from seed companies. Perhaps one of her seed sources was the James Vick Seed Company from Rochester, N.Y., because she mentioned his death in a letter to a friend within weeks after he died in 1882. In the letter she wrote, “Old Vick has died.”

Today the Island provides a learning environment as part of Cornell University’s Shoals Marine Laboratory. John Kingsbury, early scientist with the Laboratory, recreated Celia’s garden in the late 1970s. As the film portrays, every summer from the end of June until the third week of August people can now make reservations to board a boat from the dock at New Castle to visit the garden.

Page 2 of 2 - What astounded me in the film was that the garden today includes every plant variety Celia lists in her book. The number planted each summer now totals 1,600.

See the film and take the opportunity to learn about one of America’s most celebrated 19th century writers who also happened to be an avid gardener.

The documentary film is available online at celiathaxtergarden.com.

Quincy master gardener Thomas Mickey, author of the book America’s Romance with the English Garden, is professor emeritus at Bridgewater State University. You may reach him at tmickey@americangardening.net.